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This blog is managed by us two sisters, known to some as Ants and Epic. We're a pair of up-and-coming authors and avid readers. This blog is mainly full of honest, Christian book-reviews and an occasional update about our writing. We love hearing from you all so feel free to drop a comment anywhere to just say hi!Also, got any book suggestions? Something you'd like to see reviewed? Leave the title in the comments and we'll try to get to it!

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Book Review: The Spindlers

Summary: Looking across the
breakfast table one morning, twelve-year-old Liza feels dread wash over
her. Although her younger brother, Patrick, appears the same, Liza knows
that he is actually quite different. She is certain that the
spindlers—evil, spiderlike beings—came during the night and stole his
soul. And Liza is also certain that she is the only one who can rescue
him. Armed with little more than her wits and a huge talking rat
for a guide, Liza descends into the dark and ominous underground to save
Patrick's soul. Her quest is far from easy: she must brave tree-snakes,
the Court of Stones, and shape-shifting scawgs before facing her
greatest challenge in the spindlers' lair, where more than just
Patrick's soul is at stake.

Thoughts: This is a sweet tale very much reminiscent of Gregor the Overlander, Alice in Wonderland, and Coraline. The cast were cute. There was really only two who stuck through the book, Liza and the rat, and though well written I couldn't get into Liza very much. She never really became much of a living character, she just did things to get them done and this left her feeling a little flat. I did love the parts that talked about her relationship with her little brother though, well written and sweetly realistic they gave the book a deeper purpose. The writing was really good but I was sometimes confused. The author, for the most part, stays silent and simply relates the story but, maybe three times throughout the entire book, inserts a thought or statement (think Lewis's voice in Narnia). Since she did it so infrequently I was usually thrown off for a bit trying to figure out who had said/thought that sentence. Otherwise it was very poetically written and often had me feeling that I was reading a fairytale instead of middle-grade fantasy. The plot was simply and well done, winding unhurriedly to the very ending which was very satisfying.

Content: This book gets a little dark and might scare some children. There's a tiny bit of violence and mention of magic. Otherwise, a clean read for all ages!